Power and Exploitation

 

Yes, the prosecution in the George Floyd and Derek Chauvin trial put on compelling testimony and closing arguments regarding the Floyd murder. Then, we had another shooting of a young black man by a 26-year-old veteran white female police officer approximately 10 miles away. One police chief said something to the effect that her shooting a gun was a mistake. He’s a mistake. She resigned and then was fired. This essay portrays the exploitive sadistic character of killer police officers that murder black skinned individuals.

 402 years ago, black skinned individuals were brought, against their will, to this land as slaves by British pirates. In essence, black skinned people started out, in this land, being exploited by white skinned people. Roughly 150 years later, a U.S. Constitution conceived by the Wasp’s Jefferson, Madison and others reinforced and continued the policy of black exploitation. These framers supported the economic slavery conditions of the South and were concerned that the “non-slavery proponents” would dominate, exploit, and be an overbearing majority politically against the south. Employing irrational logic, the blacks were prohibited from voting, and were considered savages without morals, inferior and non-fully human. Although not human, one black equaled 3/5 of a human when it came to congressional representation.

 John C Calhoun the notorious white supremacist remarked to his friend John Quincy Adams “the enslavement of black people was the best guarantee of equality among whites.” Calhoun fought for states’ rights and believed along with Jefferson and Madison that the states were not subsidiary parts of the permanent union but sovereign members of a compact subject to continual revision.

Approximately 100 years later, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that the   non-educated, limited work experience blacks were slave free. Lincoln later pushed for freeing the blacks as a military strategy during the Civil War. Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the KKK followed. The Southern states enacted laws to arrest the blacks so they could continue to enslave and exploit them. Lynching’s, burnings and other sadistic brutality and murder followed. The Selma, Alabama march exhibited police brutality against the peaceful marchers. Congressman John Lewis was there and told first-hand about his experiences as a young man. Our culture and societal norms, in most institutions, are of exploitation, sadistic treatment and continue to be well-established against the people of black color. White man have every right to sadistically exploit blacks because it’s what they deserve, it’s their nature?

A national database compiled and maintained by the Washington Post found that from 2015 to May 2020, Native Americans were killed by police at a rate of three times that of white people; black people were killed at 2.6 times the rate of white people or 1265 total killed. Unarmed black victims, were killed at three times the rate of white people or 218 total killed. These killings are on par with other common causes of death such as lives lost due to cyclist and road injuries, unintentional firearm injuries and maternal death cases related to pregnancy.

One co-author, in an epidemiology study, stated, “Black people are disproportionately killed by police even when they are unarmed.” Further, “what has been done at the local level-such as body cameras and independent investigations-has been insufficient? We need to raise it to state and national level and to codify it into law. “According to the US Bureau of Justice statistics in 2008, the census of state and local law enforcement agencies in California totaled 509. These agencies employed 79,431 sworn police officers or about 217 per each 100,000 residents. In the County of El Dorado, sheriffs roam. I’m not sure what they do, but they do carry guns. Recently, I saw a sheriff buying a sandwich at the local market. He was armed. He needed his weapon?

As an overview, let’s turn our attention to the character of sworn police officers. Remember, character determines what is expressed, what one thinks, and what one feels.  There are different character types and these types often blend as in degrees on a continuum. There is no one character type exclusive of all others. However, there’s a tendency for one character type to be more dominant than another. This means there are many differences and variations in character and thus behavior.

The study of psychology is about interpersonal interactions. Before there was a study of psychology, the 10 commandments identified sinful and exploitive behaviors of man treating man. Honor your father and your mother; you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; and you shall not covet laid out a very clear framework of exploitation being a sin. In other words, exploitation of man treating man has been with us since the beginning of Judeo-Christian religions. A sin means?

Turning to the movies, there are many splendid and concrete examples of man treating man in an exploitive, cruel and sadistic manner. For instance: Spartacus had slaves battling slave, Romans and lions for survival or death for the enjoyment of the crowd. In Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman was sentenced for two years as a prisoner in Florida. Although a charming and witty war hero, Newman’s character refused to conform or be rehabilitated. As a consequence, the sadistic warden Strother Martin employed sadistic and exploitive punishments.

In the Dirty Harry series, Clint Eastwood was sadistic and exploitive and yet he had a cute girlfriend as well. Eastwood was intelligent, witty, devoted and at times charming as well. His famous line to a bad guy “Make My Day” still rings. Of course, Eastwood had the gun pointed at the bad guy while the other guy thought about picking up the gun near him. About 20 years ago, Denzel Washington played a sadistic exploitive police officer in Training Day. He was manipulative and exploited his new partner Ethan Hawke on his first day. Washington as a corrupt cop, had his fellow cops kill and steal a large sum of money. Yet the popular criminal Washington, in his role, was charming, adaptable, pathological, composed under stress, intelligent, witty, and generous. During that eventful day, Denzel took a break and had sex with his girlfriend and gave her presents.

The movies provide stories of man treating man in exploitive, cruel, and in a sadistic manner. There are many movies that demonstrate that manner in politics, government, Wall Street, military and about our police force. Our nation’s history is based on exploitation, sadism and sin. It’s no wonder that our institutions, society and individuals exhibit the same character quality. Let’s turn, to the institution of police with the culture of exploitation and sadism as their character.

Exploitation refers to how man treats others. He can take things from others out of force or through methods of being cunning. He can steal and his stolen property always seems better. There is complete domination over a powerless individual or person. The person is treated as a thing to be exploited and this character trait is accompanied by destructiveness and cruelty. The culture of the police refers to white power, a badge and permission to treat man inhumanely. Right of might rationalizes the law of nature. George Floyd allegedly had a counterfeit $20 bill. It took three policeman to arrest and kill him for that infraction?

Sadism, is the desire and goal to inflict pain, suffering on another and to want to witness the weakness and humiliation. As a character trait, it’s the desire is to be in complete control, hurt and humiliate. Attractions to power, wealth and being manipulative with or without a sexual component are also factors. In many cases, the object is perceived and treated as not being human. In essence with sadism, it’s having complete mastery and control over another and to make him an object of the officers will. George Floyd was lying face first on the ground, his hands, behind his back were in handcuffs for 9 minutes 29 seconds with a knee on his neck.  George Floyd” was not resting,” he was helpless, powerless, humiliated and not a threat. I don’t know anyone who would treat a dog in that manner. That was no way to treat a human being and George Floyd was not treated as one. There was no apology, sadness or empathetic emotion from Chauvin. Business as usual.

With character tendencies to be sadistic and exploitive, one is attracted to employment with a gun, a badge, criminal justice protection in an industry that was established to exploit and protect the white ruling class since 1844 .This fact is in concert with the socioeconomic and political system in our country. Along with these character traits, an individual can have irrational passions of anger, hatred and compel him to act, with fanatical devotion, in a non-rational way, not with reason toward “non humans.”

These police individuals become expectations of authority and act in the way or in the name of duty. They are an authority to be feared, admired, and loved. There is a chain of command and they are part of a team. They protect each other’s back and are protected by the Supreme Court regarding their immunity. The major problem of police killing blacks is serious and complex. Likely, training, cameras, and independent investigations do not address the cause.

The bad officers are those that have a character tendency for exploitive and sadistic behavior. Likely, other police and administrators know who they are. Their talk in private among their own provides insight; spouses or significant others also can provide input; alcohol, drug use and spousal abuse provide additional clues. Unfortunately, therapy and psychological evaluations along with love and decency are perceived signs of weakness and thinking the occupation of cowards and degenerates for this breed.

Years ago, I evaluated the psychological fitness for potential officers. I propose setting up a specialized program followed by research study that would evaluate specialized training with officers that have exploitive and sadistic character traits to see if the training can change or modify behavior in the field. A few of the specialized training components would include: identifying and dealing with anxiety and fear; raising intellectual, spiritual and moral levels; providing peer group support; and identifying primitive emotional triggers.  I would also change the hiring practices. Do not let the bad pick the rotten apples.

PS

Stanley Milligram, a social psychologist, conducted a classical study on obedience to authority. He had his subjects believing that they were administering electric shocks to other participants in his experiment. In other words, exploitive sadistic tendencies were exposed and expressed under authority conditions. In another study, Philip Zimbardo, a social psychologist, conducted a prison experiment at Stanford. In this experiment, some students or subjects were prisoners and some students or subjects were the guards. The sadism and exploitation of the student guards, in their authority role, were apparent; some student prisoners withdrew and the experiment was terminated after six days. Exploitation is easy.

References

Delbanco, Andrew. Paleo-Confederate.  The New York Times, February 28, 2021

Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom. Avon Books